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Researchers found that bacteria can remember when they cause severe illnesses including antibiotic resistance and bacterial swarms when millions of bacteria gather on a surface. The discovery, which could prevent and treat bacterial infections and antibiotic-resistant pathogens, involves a common chemical element bacterial cells can employ to develop and pass on memories to their future generations.
According to University of Texas at Austin researchers, E. coli bacteria retain behavioral information in iron levels and activate it in response to stimuli.
Scientists have shown that bacteria that had previously swarmed improve their subsequent swarming performance. UT researchers investigated why. Bacteria don’t have neurons, synapses, or nervous systems, therefore their memories aren’t like blowing out birthday candles at a kid’s party. Instead, they resemble computer data.
Bacteria do not possess brains, but they can collect information from their surroundings, and if they came across that environment more often, they can preserve that information and quickly use it for their benefit.
It ultimately comes down to iron, one of Earth’s most abundant elements. Iron levels differ in single and free-floating bacteria. Scientists found that iron-poor bacteria swarm better. In contrast, biofilm-forming bacteria have high iron levels in their cells. Antibiotic-tolerant bacteria have balanced iron levels. Iron memories last four generations and diminish by the seventh.
Early cellular organisms used iron for several processes before oxygen was in the environment. Iron is essential for life’s formation and evolution. It makes sense that cells would use it in this way.
Researchers believe that low iron levels cause bacterial memory to form a fast-moving migratory swarm in search of iron. Memories indicate biofilm formation is good in high-iron environments.
Iron concentrations are certainly an area of focus for therapeutics because iron is a key component in virulence. In the end, the more the researchers understand about bacterial behavior, less difficult it is to eliminate them.
Sources:
Souvik Bhattacharyya et al. (2023). A heritable iron memory enables decision-making in Escherichia coli, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2309082120
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bacteria-memories-generations.html
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